D 


And  The  Manhattan  Gompany 

HIGH  GOAD 

By  Edward  Sheldon 


SEYMOUR  DURST 


"  'The  High  Road'  leads  to  a  great  success.  It 
is  not  too  much  to  say  that  Edward  Sheldon's  play 
scored  one  of  the  few  big  and  deserved  hits  of  the 
season.  Not  in  many  seasons  has  Mrs.  Fiske 
acted  with  such  genuine  dramatic  appeal,  and  her 
technique  was  superb." — New  York  World. 


When  Edward  Sheldon  w^rote  "The  High  Road,"  which  is  generally  con- 
sidered his  most  important  play,  he  subtitled  it  "A  Pilgrimage  in  Five 
Parts,"  and  this  titular  explanation  is  not  without  some  value.  In  this 
instance,  he  deals  with  a  woman's  life.  His  protagonist  presents  herself 
to  our  view  when  she  is  seventeen,  and  she  passes  from  our  horizon  a 
woman  of  forty,  a  wife,  a  happy  wife  and  a  triumphant  wife. 

When  Mary  Page  first  appears  she  is  a  miserly  farmer's  daughter,  and 
the  drudge  of  the  place.  Into  this  monotonous  life  there  comes,  from  the 
great  world  outside,  Alan  Wilson,  a  man  of  charm  and  inherited  wealth,  a 
dilettante  in  art,  in  whom  the  collector's  sense  is  highly  developed.  Mary, 
whose  life  has  been  one  of  unsatisfied  longings,  clothes  him  with  all  the 
romance  of  which  she  has  dreamed.  She  in  turn  appeals  to  him  much  as 
would  some  new  object  of  art,  and  after  a  few  weeks  Mary  goes  away 
with  him,  very  much  as  a  child  might  go,  heedless  of  the  consequences, 
thinking  of  them,  indeed,  not  at  all.  And,  only  an  hour  before,  there  had 
passed  a  certain  Winfield  Barnes,  who,  from  an  orphaned  childhood,  had 
come  to  local  prominence  as  a  country  lawyer.  And  one  may  see  in  this 
passing  something  of  the  eternal  juggling  of  fate  if  one  will. 


"  'The  High  Road'  is  the  most  interesting  and 
best  worth  while  play  of  the  season  so  far.  Mrs. 
Fiske  has  never  done  a  finer  piece  of  work  than 
this  vigorous  portrayal  of  a  developing  charac- 
ter."— New  York  Tribune. 


"It  was  a  superb  exhibition  of  versatility  that 
Mrs.  Fiske  offered  and  'The  High  Road'  will  class 
with  the  best  plays  of  the  year." — New  York  Com- 
mercial. 

"Mrs.  Fiske  is  seen  at  her  very  splendid  best 
in  a  big,  gripping  drama." — New  York  Sun. 


Mary  lives  with  Wilson  for  three  years,  dazzled  at  first  by  all  the 
beauties  to  which  he  introduces  her  in  a  tour  of  the  art  circles  of  the 
world,  her  soul  dormant,  in  love  with  love,  and  not  with  the  man,  and  to 
this  fact,  toward  the  close  of  the  period,  she  awakens.  -She  has  no  regrets 
for  the  past,  of  which  she  had  no  understanding,  and,  apparently,  no  fears 
for  the  future.  The  man  would  wed  her,  but  even  this  is  rejected,  for  she 
does  not  love  him.  And  she  passes  out  of  his  life  and  out  of  the  luxury 
which  she  had  known  with  him  and  goes  to  begin  life  anew  as  a  worker  in 
a  factory.  She  has  found  herself,  in  other  words,  and  slowly  and  pains- 
takingly, she  begins  a  career  devoted  to  the  interests  of  the  women  workers 
of  the  country.  She  fights  in  their  behalf  and,  eighteen  years  after,  suc- 
ceeds, in  the  face  of  tremendous  opposition,  in  effecting  the  enactment  of 
laws  that  safeguard  the  welfare  of  the  women  toilers  of  New  York. 

The  Governor  who  has  assisted  her  and  who  affixes  his  signature  to  the 
bill  is  the  "country  lawyer"  who  passed  her,  twenty-one  years  before,  in 
the  dooryaru  of  her  father's  farmhouse.  And  even  with  youth  no  longer 
the  portion  of  either,  he  loves  her  and  she  loves  him  and  they  are 
married — not,  however,  until  Mary  has  told  him  the  story  of  those  three 
fateful  years. 


"In  her  portrayal  of  Mary  Page,  Mrs.  Fiske 
did  many  remarkable  things,  but  it  was  in  the 
opening  scene,  as  a  girl  of  16,  that  she  scored 
her  greatest  victory.  *  *  *  No  cold  ink  can 
do  iustice  to  that  remarkably  tense  fourth  act. 
Every  second  of  it  holds  you!"—  New  York 
Evening  Sun. 


"Where  are  you  sending  your  trunk  ? 
"I'm  not  sending  it— I'm  going  with  it.' 


"Full  of  virile  life  and  red  blod  is  'The  High 
Road,  Mrs.  Fiske's  new  play.  Never  before  has 
this  really  wonderful  actress  had  better  opportu- 
nities, and  never  in  her  career  has  she  taken 
better  or  more  complete  advantage  of  every  chance 
offered  her." — Neiv  York  Evening  Journal. 


Thus  Mary  Page  passes  through  three  epochs  of  her  "pilgrimage,"  and 
the  fourth  is  begun  when  the  Governor  is  his  party's  candidate  for  the 
highest  office  in  the  people's  gift.  Victory  is  within  his  grasp  and  his 
election  appears  to  be  assured  until  fate  plays  again  with  its  little  manikins 
and  John  Stepnen  Maddock  appears  to  confront  Mrs.  Barnes  with  the 
spectre  of  Mary  Page's  life. 

Maddock  had  met  her  for  a  single  hour  in  that  luxurious  apartment  in 
which  Wilson  had  placed  her.  But,  years  later,  their  paths  crossed  again 
when  Maddock  had  inherited  his  father's  interest  in  a  great  industrial 
combination  and  stood,  as  a  consequence,  opposed  to  the  enactment  of 
legislation  limiting  the  hours  of  woman's  work  in  the  country's  factories. 
Maddock  incidentally,  too,  had  established  a  string  of  newspapers  across 
the  country  and  he  admits  that  he  needs  the  profits  from  the  manufacturing 
trust  to  maintain  these  papers.  But  the  papers  are  a  power  and  they  must 
be  reckoned  with.  They  oppose  Barnes  because  Barnes  stands  on  a  plat- 
form demanding  reforms  that  will  reduce  the  Maddock  profits. 

vnd  Maddock  forces  the  issue.  He  sees  a  means  of  reviving  the  old 
scandal,  and.  buried  though  it  has  been  for  twenty  years,  he  drags  it  forth. 
Barnes  faces  disaster,  but,  even  in  his  desperation,  he  will  not  consent  to 
Maddock's  demand  that  he  abandon  his  principles.    He  fights  to  protect  his 


"Once  more  we  must  bow  to  Mrs.  Fiske.  Of 
all  the  women  on  our  stage,  she  is  the  one, 
and  the  only  one.  to  hold  up  a  torch  that  dims  the 
footlights.  With  the  directness  of  her  clearsighted  ~ 
art,  she  took  'The  High  Road'  to  triumph," — New 
York  Evening  World. 


"Don't  you  think  you  will  need  your  hat  ?" 


"In  'The  High  Road,'  Edward  Sheldon  exhibits 
a  definite  improvement  in  theatrical  skill,  notable 
ingenuity  in  the  development  of  striking  stage  situ- 
ations and  a  growing  mastery  of  compact,  forcible 
and  dramatic  dialogue.  The  play  contains  much 
common  sense  and  sound  morality." — New  York 
Evening  Post. 


wife  but  finally  at  Maddock's  demand  and  at  the  request  of  members  of 
his  own  national  committee,  Mrs.  Barnes  is  put  on  the  rack.  At  first  she 
denies,  then  she  evades;  she  knows  what  admission  -  means.  But,  bit 
by  bit,  the  truth  is  forced  from  her;  every  avenue  of  escape  is  closed.  The 
mistake  of  twenty  years  before  rises  in  the  crisis  to  threaten  defeat. 

Her  husband,  overcome  in  the  crush  of  circumstances,  is  powerless;  in 
his  disappointment,  feeling  that  all  is  lost,  he  turns  upon  and  upbraids  her, 
but  in  infinite  tenderness  and  compassion,  she  sends  him  to  make  his  final 
address  of  the  campaign.  She  summons  Maddock  and  they  stand  face  to 
face.  Mary  has  nothing  to  conceal  and  she  conceals  nothing.  She  answers 
Maddock's  threat  of  exposure  by  announcing  that  she  herself  will  make  a 
statement  to  the  men  and  women  of  America  which  shall  be  published  in 
every  newspaper  in  the  land  and  she  will  let  the  public  decide.  This  state- 
ment she  dictates — making  the  first  stage  use  of  the  Edison  dictaphone — 
and  it  is  a  statement,  despite  her  own  earlier  error,  that  is  greatly  to 
Maddock's  discredit,  placing  as  it  does  before  the  country  his  reasons  for 
adopting  the  scandalous  means  he  has  done  to  force  a  surrender  of  her 
husband's  principles.  Her  determination  defeats  him,  routs  him  utterly, 
and  he  realizes  that  he  can  accomplish  nothing  in  the  face  of  it.  Acknowl- 


"Mrs.  Fiske,  we  sometimes  think,  has  a  reper- 
toire of  souls  rather  than  one  of  characters.  And 
to  that  repertoire  she  may  now  add  that  of  Mary 
Page,  idealist.  In  'The  High  Road'  Mrs  Fiske 
has  one  of  those  supreme  moments  to  which  no 
other  woman  of  our  stage  can  do  as  full  justice 
as  she." — New  York  Evening  Mail. 


'When 


duous  scene 


there  was 
actress  on 


Mrs.  Fiske  had  fin!^VhJTl!ghanRoad, 

reatest 


the  fourth  act  of 


no  doubt  that  she  is  still  th 


the  American  stage 


he  had  carried 


the  audience  with  her 
changing  emotions  '  — 


as  she  expressed  constantly 
New  York  Evening  Telegram. 


platform  has  some  genuine  gc^iopmenti  her  soul's  progress  through 
He  goes  on  to  show  a  w  oman  s  ue v«  >         recollections  of  a  wife 

a  period  of  twenty-three  >^JS' ^ 4le^ppv   loved,  loving  and  triumphant 

stage  artist  of  her  clay.  reached  its  zenith  in  her  visualiza- 

Airs  Fiske's  art  is  conceded  to  have  r, BaGB eu.  her  wontlerf  uU> 

„„„  of  Alary  Page,  her m^g™a°f0/s°  ?n Ve  ltfter  acts  of  the  play,  having 
^VW^S?^  encomiums  of  her  career. 


°al,  %  -h-l/shncss  of  S1x«een   years.  a  H* 

SMKV^iSf  «S*S to.  Mrs.  Fiske  !»-»«. 
Yor*  aforniW  Telegraph. 


"I'm  going  to  call  up  Washington  and  have  the  investiga- 
"a    .  ,  tIon  started  immediately." 

And  I  am  going  to  dictate  my  statement  to  the  men  and  women 
of  America  and  let  them  judge  between  us."  women 


"At  last  the  great  American 
actress  and  a  great  American  play  have 
collided.    In  "  The  High  Road  "  the  first  act  is  poetry, 
the  second  act  is  art  and  social  development,  and  the 
third  is  politics  with  a  fine  and  vivid  bit  of  drama  at  Us 
close    But  the  fourth  and  fifth  acts  are  drama  of  the  intense 
sort     It  rings  like  a  series  of  pistol  shots,  and  it  leaves  the  audi- 
ence  stirred  and  almost  stunned  by  its  power,  and  by  its  -expected 
conclusion    *    *    *    Mrs.  Fiske  soars  like  an  eagle."-Brooklyn  Eagl 


r  «i  Opera  Ho^ 


As  a  study  of  character  and  as  a  dramatic  presentation 
of  certain  phases  of  our  present  political  conditions,  the 
play  is  genuinely  remarkable."-The  Outlook. 

"  The  High  Road  "  is  by  all  odds  the  most 
significant  American  play  of  the 
season.'"— Town  Topics. 


